Congratulations! You've just won the Draft lottery...now what?

[Dr.Sens(e)]

Turris is the only other center who is truly a center or nothing. All of the other guys can and have played the wing. In fact, one of both of Zib and Lazar might be better suited there. So you basically have Turris and McDavid at center, and a bunch of options and questions marks, that will be figured out in the years to come.

 

[Scrub*]

Trade Mcdavid! fans would run him out of town anyways.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Adding McDavid doesn't magically solve our lack of talent though. Still can't afford to give away Turris or Zibby in a trade.

Adding a generational center certainly does solve our talent issues.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

The PPP line is completely unproven and may never become full time NHLers...still unknowns. Lazar will never be a first line talent (his skill set is 3rd line material on a contender), Chiasson is 2nd/3rd line tweener on a contender, Hoffman and Stone don't necessarily crack the top 6 on a contender.

I love our guys, but we have to be realistic here.

Turris MacArthur and stone destroying weaker matchups. Turris has already done it.

More mature zib and Hoffman destroying even weaker matchups. Not a problem there

 

[DrunkUncleDenis]

What? Of course he would.

Ryan - McDavid - Lazar
MacArthur - Turris - Stone
Hoffman - Zibanejad - Chiasson
Puempel - Paul - Prince

In what way does that lineup lack talent? We're a McDavid and a top 4 D away from contending.

Sure this would be a great line-up on paper, but you have to take into account injuries at some point. What if a few of the top 9 get injured? Then our elite forward talent doesn't look so good or deep.

Say Ryan gets injured, and we're back to mediocre talent with a star centre.

 

[PierresGabriels]

Now what? I weep with joy. We just got an incredibly special player.

 

[Super Cake]

It sure would be amazing if the Sens did win the lottery.

 

[bacon25]

So presumably you draft McDavid.
What do you do next?

Go with:

McDavid
Turris
Zibanejad
Lazar

or

Do you move Turris or Zibanejad and other piece(s) for that elusive top pairing defenceman?

What would you do?

Without looking at other posts and off the top of my head,

trade Anderson and one of Zibby or Turris for an upgrade on D.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Sure this would be a great line-up on paper, but you have to take into account injuries at some point. What if a few of the top 9 get injured? Then our elite forward talent doesn't look so good or deep.

Say Ryan gets injured, and we're back to mediocre talent with a star centre.

What if a few of LAs top nine get injured? Bostons? What if islanders lose Tavares and okposo... Injuries are ALWAYS a risk.. but every other team has that same risk.

Yea its always a risk. Turris isn't elite first line talent.. but hes one of the best pure second line centers in the league. so its not like we lose ryan and everyones like who are we going to now?!. macarthur and turris will continue to score on the second line, same goes with zib and Hoffman and chiasson. and im sure puempel will still be putting ina few goals beside Elite 1c

 

[Burrowsaurus]

I would go

Puempel mcdavid Lazar/Stone
Mac turris Ryan
Hoff Zib Lazar/Stone
Signing maybe pageau chiasson

 

[bert]

Stop dreaming, he ain't coming here, we're squeezing into the Playoffs!

Not a chance, that's not to worry. The real problem is how long management will wait before they start to see the writing on the the wall. Anderson gets delt it turns this organization around he sticks around they pick 9th while being a bottom 3 team.

 

[Burrowsaurus]

Not a chance, that's not to worry. The real problem is how long management will wait before they start to see the writing on the the wall. Anderson gets delt it turns this organization around he sticks around they pick 9th while being a bottom 3 team.

I am really starting to doubt Murray. I understand that he may be a bit desperate to get into the playoffs and have this team do well, and I don't think that we are smarter than he is.. but the guy just seems oblivious to some things.

 

[thinkwild]

Adding McDavid doesn't magically solve our lack of talent though. Still can't afford to give away Turris or Zibby in a trade.

I'd have to agree. When the Pens got Mario, it took them 6 years i think to make the playoffs. Ovechkin was no instant success either. Nor RNH. It would surely take McEichel a couple of years to become a pro and a man still.

But it would change the dynamic of our ability to make trades and sign key ufa's as it did for Pitt with Crosby


I don’t see why our GM setting the expectation that this team could make the playoffs is so unreasonable. It seems a hard but reasonable goal to strive for to me. I wouldn’t be expecting that we’d be trading away our first rounder or loading up on UFA’s in an attempt to get there, but surely this young team has already shown that they are within reach of a development jump, a Methot return, and a winning streak that could propel them into the final playoff spot in a weak East, even as a bottom spender. And I would expect our GM to be setting no less of a goal for them with his words. His actions are setting quite a reasonable goal too though.

Murray has made a point of building this team from the back end out. We started with goal tending as a weakness. Now it is such a strength we are willing to trade perhaps one of the best goalies we’ve ever had, who single handedly has stole games for us, in order to run with Ray Lehnery. If Lehner really is ready, how can trading Anderson and running with Lehner really sink our standing position that low? Wouldn’t that happening signify that Lehner actually isn’t as ready as you are claiming and that Anderson is someone we should be much more hesitant of trading?

I agree Anderson is a great piece of trade bait. If there was an unexpected deal that could return us another core player, it would most certainly have to be considered seriously. If such a rare circumstance were to present itself, I can think of few GM’s more willing and able to pull the trigger on such a deal than BMurr.

But making that trade in the hopes it will improve our draft position this year and that we can then recover from it right after that seems to go against the grain of experience we have lived through and tear apart the plan we have been working on so far.

 

[GWNR]

Sure this would be a great line-up on paper, but you have to take into account injuries at some point. What if a few of the top 9 get injured? Then our elite forward talent doesn't look so good or deep.

Say Ryan gets injured, and we're back to mediocre talent with a star centre.

What a dumb argument. No team in this league stays elite when 'a few of the top 9 get injured'. You must have been drunk crafting that stupidity

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Adding McDavid changes nothing in terms of potential trades by itself

You add an excellent centre to your roster and stay the course

Make changes after an evaluation period has passed and use that evaluation period to makes changes based on what was observed

 

[aragorn]

I just don't see Ottawa being in the lottery for McDavid, my guess is they will be drafting out of the top 10 & around the 15th spot, give or take.

 

[Back in Black]

I am really starting to doubt Murray. I understand that he may be a bit desperate to get into the playoffs and have this team do well, and I don't think that we are smarter than he is.. but the guy just seems oblivious to some things.

Yep, 8 years is a long time to still be a mediocre team, and 5 coaches in those 8 years rings ALARM bells to me.

Seriously, that's almost a decade.

 

[Gil Gunderson]

I just don't see Ottawa being in the lottery for McDavid, my guess is they will be drafting out of the top 10 & around the 15th spot, give or take.

Any non-playoff team can win the lottery for 1st overall now. The odds aren't great, though.